About six years ago, entrepreneur Taylor McLemore, Congressman Jared Polis and Techstars’ co-founder David Cohen launched a mini-startup accelerator program for military members, veterans and their spouses. Called Patriot Boot Camp, the three-day crash course, aimed at immersing participants in the basics of entrepreneurship and modeled on the 12-week Techstars program, is now held twice a year in Texas and Colorado.

But, while focused on startups, the program encompasses founders at different stages, from pre-revenue to someone looking, say, for a second round of financing. For that reason, Josh Carter, interim CEO of Patriot Bootcamp, and his colleagues started thinking recently about adding more-structured programming for specific phases of growth. “If you’re talking about term sheets, for the entrepreneur who just has a concept, that’s off-putting, while, for the person who’s on their next funding round, it’s unnecessary,” says Carter.

U.S. veterans or service members who want to found a tech startup can apply to any of the more than 20 U.S. Founder Institute chapters for free. Then, if they’re selected, they receive a Patriot Boot Camp fellowship to participate in the Founder Institute’s program, again for free.

Plus, veterans who are alumni of either the Founder Institute or Patriot Boot Camp program will be able to tap both program’s networks. For example, Founder Institute graduates can participate in Patriot Boot Camp programs, while Patriot Boot Camp alums can receive fellowships to Founder Institute's Founder Lab, which offers intensive lessons in fundraising tactics.

In April, Patriot introduced its first session of VetHack, a 48-hour coding event, in Washington, DC. In October, another is planned to take place in Seattle in conjunction with Techstars' Startup Week Seattle. Each team has to include a veteran or military spouse. “By creating these events, we hope to create a better funnel,” says Carter.

Carter, in fact, is a veteran-turned-entrepreneur. After three years in the navy in the mid-90’s, he joined Twilio as an early employee. Then in 2015 he tried to start a tech company, called Brightwork, taking part in Techstars and Patriot Boot Camp programs. The startup didn’t work out, but Carter ended up at Patriot, eventually becoming interim CEO.

About 2.5 million veterans own businesses, according to the Small Business Administration. And, military veteran entrepreneurs and their spouses are twice as likely as civilians to be operating their startups after five years.